In a
raw, aged, garage space off the courtyard of The Tim Faulkner Gallery complex,
a small group of free-lance players produced a tidy staging of Rachel White’s
one-act play The Gardeners. The rough textures of the unorthodox venue might
seem off-putting, but the environment served to support the material and
provide meaningful contrast to the poetical language featured in the text.

The
spare narrative carries little plot, and is structured as a series of scenes
involving a family – father, mother and teenage daughter – who are so
self-absorbed and inextricably linked to electronic devices for any meaningful
communication as to be tragic figures lacking in empathy. In their garden are
two robots programmed to tend the living plants, in particular, thriving tomato
vines vividly made manifest in Patrick White’s set design. The human characters
are preoccupied with shallow, materialistic business and social interactions,
while the robots are focused entirely on nurturing life. The point is not a
subtle one, yet it is subtly dramatized in monologues from the robots that are
beautifully articulated in language that is graceful and compassionate.

Director
Brian Hinds leads his cast through smart, economical paces. Karina Strange,
Joseph Hatfield and Jenni Cochran essay the humans with appropriate edge and
selfishness; you will not like these people much, and the robots are sensitively
measured for a lack of guile but a surprising degree of humanity by Jeremy Sapp
and author Rachel White.

It
seems an opportunity opening up to explore the merging of theatre and visual
art. Of course, most theatre incorporates visual design in sets and costumes. But Patrick White’s work here is singular and expressive in offbeat and
muscular ways that point to a potential for greater collaboration between
writers, actors, painters and sculptors. Watch this space.

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